good old days

I was yesterday reminded of the “Good old Days” July the 19th at 0300 my electricity was knocked out by a thunderstorm. I was without electricity and all the bad things it brings for 13 hours. I am 54 so I remember when central cooling was just taking hold in Texas . I remember the women fanning themselves in church cause it was hot the churches had no central cooling. The schools had no central cooling the stores had no central cooling it was fans swamp coolers and such. The automobiles or as Chevrolet would now be properly called Obamamobills had no air-condition except two windows and 60 miles per hour. We all sweated except in the winter when if we were lucky it got cold but mind you I have witnessed it at 80 on Christmas day in Texas. I listened to the radio which I do anyway on Sunday. I listened to John Gresham’s gun talk . I drank lots of water but with no electricity you have no cooling in your refrigerators so the tea and water got warm quickly. I ate my last ½ gallon of ice cream or what is left of it as it was melting. I remember when we got air-conditioning in the ranch pickup my father would only let us run it on the way home not on the 125 mile trip north to that ranch which we would be ridding horses all day prowling the pastures. We were tougher then by far as we were closer the unvarnished nature so we faced the brunt of the heat and cold without all of the latest inventions in clothing foot wear and refrigerated air conditioning or in heating. My pop up deer blind I take a propane heater to it so I do not have to fight the cold . I have the propylene underwear and sox latest coats and face mask but I hunt comfortable in my stand with my Mr Heater propane heater. We have insect repellents that work off of batteries and guarantee to keep the mosquitoes off of us, we have ice chest we use to call them that are electric and generators that can be packed into the most remote areas to provide the comforts of home away from home. I think if ridding in a north wind with all the cloths I could ride with freezing my keister off , or in the hot sun sweating my body salty and stinky. Yes we are softer less able to keep up with the changing weather but I think we maybe better off cause instead of using our brawn we use our brains. Wool keeps you just so warm and so dry but the modern synthetic fabrics do so much better job, as we have sent roughnecks and oil field hands into more extreme environments’ we have developed better survival gear for all. You know it may be the things of the past like searching for oil may be the trail that leads to the future cause if these people were not drilling in these environments we would not have this clothing for our soldiers and our fireman and others that need extreme environment clothing.7/20/2009